Tamir (The One-Hundred #3)

Blurb

You know Cressa-la's story. But do you know Tamir's?
Every baby is killed beneath the waves--with one exception. The one-hundred thousandth lives.
A long time ago, 1 in every 100,000 children born from a human was a mermaid. But now mermaids are the only ones that can survive in this flooded world. Every human child born is killed the moment they take their first breath. However, one in every one-hundred thousand is spared.
These children are placed on the mountain-tops, the "islands", that poke up over the sea. The Earth has become warmer, making these islands habitable. The humans that survive through Mother Nature's fury have created Tribes, created rules. One of these rules is to not go near the water, to not touch it. But when Tamir's best friend steals his girl and pushes him into the sharp, rocky death waiting below, Tamir's sure this is where his story ends--or has it just begun?
You know Cressa-la's story. But do you know Tamir's?

Introduction

“Tamir,” the Sivoli Clan’s Queen sniffles as she gives her baby one last kiss on the forehead. She wonders who he could have been if the inmermain rule of the one-hundred hadn’t been invented, or even if her friend… But because of the very breaths her little human baby boy breathes, she can’t help but be grateful he at least gets to live, by chance or luck if not by the grace of God Himself.

She hands him off into the strong hands of the Revli Head Tribe Leader, and he studies his face. His mouth forms her sons name once before finishing it, before connecting him to the land.

“Tamir-in.” The mans eyes drift up to the Queen as she sniffles once again and as her husband wraps his arm around her. If only it wouldn’t hurt her so…

“Don’t worry,” her husband says. “The Revli Tribe stands for love.”

“And we will love him until the day he departs.” The man holding her child smiles warmly.

The Queen nods and turns away, the moon high in the sky. They know what he is. But the Revli Tribe doesn’t know who they are.

Do you remember how the humans survived the Flood, child? I’d told you once before—but did you listen? If you didn’t, I shall remind you. Remember it this time, I beg of you…

It came many years ago, during a time when the world had counted each passing year. We’ve long forgotten that dreaded number, the last number before the waters took us from the world we’d grown accustomed to, and started back over at zero. The night that baby had been born, the same night of another, a one-hundred, it was year SEA-122,354—one hundred and twenty-two thousand, three hundred and fifty-four years after the Flood.

Humans were wiped out, but they were never to be gone. The mermaid population prospered due to the entire Earth almost being completely submerged for several hundred years. However, not all mermaids have mermaid babies. Sometimes a human is thrown in the mix.

One in every one hundred thousand mermaid births end in the result of a human baby because mermaids have so many human characteristics and body parts. There’s no magic involved, as many used to think all those years ago of mermaids, just survival. On the contrary, there has been a tale crafted over the years telling of a silent magic floating about among the waves, granting wishes and giving miracles… but it’s just a fable, a made-up story…

Or so we like to believe.

There is an estimate of 3.4 births every second and 86,400 seconds in a day, resulting in 293,760 births per twenty-four hours over the entire mermaid population. That means there are about two human births each day. Not all the mermaid Clans are as merciful as the one who spared the One-Hundred, the one hundred thousandth baby born to that clan. Most of them kill the human children on sight, knowing they could potentially be dangerous and destructive if they put them on land, as well as the fact that human babies would not survive underwater. The mermaid population knows evolution is nonexistent and that the humans could never swim with them as surely as the sun beats onto the surface of the water.

The Clans that spare these babies, they hold knowledge of places, mountain peaks that stick out over the water. It is enough to hold a city of saved humans.

That is where they are sent, every human baby. Grown adults that have learned to survive against the weather and the animals, and they take care of the One-Hundreds. Of course, there is a slim chance of making it past the one-year mark for the children, and an even slimmer chance to make it to two.

The last story told was of a girl that made it to sixteen and beyond, even with the darkness chasing after her. But this is not that story.

This is before Cressa-la, before she touched the water, and before she changed the world she knew.

This story is about her soul mate, her match, her love—before he was a glimmer in her eye.

Mourn8220House:
This was quite an adventure to read - I laughed my ass off at many of the sayings (which made day). Surprisingly the idea of the novel felt fresh in a genre not lacking. I was grabbed from the get-go, it's fast-paced and easy to follow.The characters themselves are what made this story interestin...

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